pruning in during June will have a tendency to throw the tree into fruiting. 

 Keep off all straggling branches that have a tendency to grow toward the 

 ground. The tree is now in shape; pinching in will keep it there. Ingrowing 

 branches can be nipped in the bud. 



" Peaches and apricots should be treated from the start as the apple and 

 plum family, but should be shortened in about half the season's growth each 

 year. The shortening in process should not be done indiscriminately; they 

 should be cut back to a good bud or fork, or else the tree will soon thicken 

 up with an undesirable growth. 



" There may be some fears that a crotch will be formed that will split 

 down easily. This is not true, however. Branches starting oat lower down 

 are apt to form a sharp crotch and do not make a good union with the main 

 stem ; these will split down. ' Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,' and 

 also of a beautiful and symmetrical orchard." 



The following is by Mr. George Quinn, Horticultural Instructor, South 

 Australia : 



" Those kinds of trees which fruit upon permanent spurs are rendered 

 more profitable by consistent manipulation during the growing season. 

 Everyone who has tried by hard winter pruning to give trees of these kinds 

 strong, shapely sets of main arms will have been confronted with the difficulty 

 of dealing with an immense number of strong lateral shoots which grow with 

 ' broomlike ' density. To suppress these shoots completely would leave 

 those portions of the main branches from which they originate bare and 

 unproductive in future years, as well as exposed to the danger of sun scald 

 in summer. To shorten them back towards the parent branch in winter 

 would accentuate the evil, by causing their numbers to be multiplied during 

 the following season of growth. By leaving them untouched, the light is 

 shut out of the body of the tree, and the lower buds at the base of each 

 lateral remain undeveloped. At the same time, those near its point tend to 

 form into fruit buds, the produce of which bends the laterals into a confused 

 mass, and spoils the general balance of the tree's crown. 



" The correction of this overcrowded condition is found in subduing the 

 laterals and transforming them into fruit-bearing spurs. There are two 

 methods by which this may be done. The first consists of completely frac- 

 turing the laterals and removing the several portions. The second is found 

 in applying a check in the form of partially fracturing the shoot and permit- 

 ting the injured extremity to hang in a pendulous position until the winter 

 pruning is performed, when, having served its purpose, it is removed. 



" The first method may be applied in spring, when the laterals are from 

 six to eight inches in length, and brittle enough to be severed with the 

 thumb and finger. They are usually pinched off above the fourth bud from 

 the base. If this is done, a strong growth will arise again from some of the 

 buds on the stub, and these in turn must be fractured after midsummer. A 

 more practicable method is found in fracturing the laterals at midsummer, 

 wherever they exceed four inches in length. In most cases the topmost bud 

 on the stub alone will grow strongly as the summer proceeds, and this may 

 either be again fractured in early autumn or cut back to its wrinkled base 



